The vertical elements of street furniture, especially lamp posts, traffic signals, posts or billboards, totem signs, etc., because of their abundance within an urban environment pose a significant danger to vehicular traffic. In the event of the loss of control of a vehicle, unfortunately, can result in a collision with one of the vertical elements of the said street furniture.
Also, the resistance that these elements must develop against forces that could cause them to fall is especially high, given that in some cases they are very tall while at the same time being very slender. This fact implies that in the event of an impact by a vehicle against the element, most of the impact energy is absorbed by the vehicle in such a way that the occupants can be seriously injured or killed. Current statistics indicate that collisions against passive elements of road safety devices make up about 2.5% of all accidents, but account for about 5% of traffic deaths.
In other cases, the element is deformed by the collision so that it ends up leaning at an angle with respect to its initial vertical position while its base remains fixed, in such a way that the element then becomes a “launch pad” for the colliding vehicle. This is a common occurrence especially in the case of traffic signs.
Another fact that aggravates the consequences of such accidents is that automobiles are not designed to withstand collisions against slender elements, that is because the automobile's frame is not able to withstand the impact without deforming
In order to minimize the consequences of the collision of a vehicle against these elements a multitude of solutions have been developed, for example, the manufacture of lamp posts made from resins that have lower impact resistance, the installation of special protective devices at the bases of these vertical elements (barriers or buffers), designing lamp posts with long horizontal arms to distance the base of the element away from the roadway, etc. All of these systems offer partial solutions to the problem, in addition to incurring extra costs for the installation of the street furniture, but it continues to be desirable to develop a system that impedes the vertical element from causing damage to a vehicle that collides with it.
The proprietor of this reports is also aware of the existence of an anchoring system consisting of two parts that fit together at each corner of the foundation element, the parts in fact nest together, and present a limited degree of shear resistance. This system is known commercially as Inneo. When a vehicle collides with a vertical post, each pair of parts disengages, freeing the base of the post in such a manner that the post is ejected without causing serious damage to the vehicle. However, this device does not distinguish between a slight impact (due to a car being parked, for example) or a strong impact, causing the base to come free in all cases. In addition, the breakage of some of the bolts that fasten together the nested parts requires that the entire foundation be replaced.
The device described in this report allows the street furniture's vertical element to come free only when subjected to a certain magnitude of impact, this is due to the provision of a piece that acts as a brake and which must be broken in order for the upper part of the base to come free. The structure of this device in the form of a box is configured as a high resistance element which strong impacts will not deform. There is another advantage of this invention that is of added functionality, the device precludes the theft of the electrical cables from lamp post or poles.
The proprietor of this report knows of no other anchoring device for the vertical elements of street furniture that resolves the cited problems in the manner as described in this report.